Saturday, April 23, 2016

I am collecting Catholic celebrations that I can have with my kids. We don't do Church, and we don't even really pray (I know, I KNOW; I'M WORKING ON IT!!!) , but I am all about having tiny celebrations for any and everything. In fact, you can just call me tiny-celebration-lady, because it's pretty much my thing.
Oh my goodness, Catholicism has SOO many tiny parties. There is one just about everyday. I just love 'em: they break up the drudgery of routine, they set the rhythm to the year, and give this pattern for reflection, and kinda honor how ordinary things are sacred. And so many of them are just really fun and have baked treats.
I recently I read about "Candlemas", and now I am in love with it. For starters, it's timing is perfect. Right when the post-Christmas blahs start, around late January/ early Feburary, you get this cute little holiday, Candlemas, on Feburary 2nd. (Secularinos might know this as "Groundhogs day". Yes, you heard that right. Candlemas is just another example of how the main stream media is stamping out our traditional Christian values and replacing them with their pro-groundhog agenda. Thanks Obama.) Like a lot of Catholic holidays, (if not all Catholic holidays), Candlemas is an adoption of a pagan celebration. This one in particular has roots in the Gaelic celebration honoring Brigid, the goddess of springtime and general awesomeness. Let's just peruse her Wikipedia entry shall we? She's associated with "the spring season, fertility, healing, poetry and smithcraft", "wisdom, excellence, perfection, high intelligence, poetic eloquence, craftsmanship (especially blacksmithing), healing ability, druidic knowledge and skill in warfare". She's pretty kick-ass.

Candlemas Bells. Squee!

We never celebrated this in my home growing up, so I had to do a little research, (You can too if you want to check out some of the links below.) The more I read about it, the more I came to realize that not only is this holiday pleasantly feminist and perfectly times, but it is simply hands-down adorable. Something about it is so endearing: candles and springtime, lambs, and planting gardens. With all the adorable symbols and hopeful themes, naturally there are just a ton of cute ways to celebrate: holding little feasts with doves and candle-shaped cookies, or reading stories about sheep or going to a sheep shearing. So cute!

Sigh. We didn't do any of those things.

But, you know, maybe we will some day; or maybe you will, and you can tell me how it went.

What we did do is say, "Happy Candlemas" to people, looked out the window for signs of spring, and then two days later planted some tulips. Amani liked it. Whenever she sees spring flowers she shouts, "Thank you Candlemas!" In my book, that is a complete score.

We have got to do better by our girls. Seriously. With the recent explosion over Miley Cyrus and then the tragic suicide of a victim of statutory rape, the "slut shaming" of our girls needs to stop. This article by Kimberly Hall, which has been making the rounds on Facebook finally pushed me over the edge this morning. In the article Ms. Hall warns her sons' female friends that, despite the fact that the girls are charming, have many interests and seem like lovely people, even one sexually suggestive photo of themselves on Facebook will result in a "block" from the Hall boys' Facebook feed. This stance is taken in order to protect her sons.
I truly believe that Ms. Hall is trying to live a virtuous life as best she can, and that she wants to raise noble and virtuous men who respect women. I don't think she necessarily harbors these young girls any ill will; she uses a tone that obviously tries to be motherly and kind. That said, I am not sure what she is protecting her sons from. Boobs? Pouty lips? Her sons' own sexual imaginations? They are between the ages of 13 and 16 so...she is going to have a lot of work to do.

Nope. You do you, sweetie. It is not your job to teach boys to respect women.

Don't get me wrong: I don't think those girls should be posting sexually suggestive pictures of themselves on the internet, first and foremost because most of these poor girls really just end up making themselves look like ducks with back problems.
And that is because they are stupid, immature kids. We need to remember that. They are not harlots out trick our men into having sex. They worked hard on those photos, choosing their outfits, getting their hair so it looks a little like Selena Gomez's. They want boys to notice them, to be with them, to give them assurance of their value, and they are experimenting with what society claims is their only one true asset. We are failing our girls and blaming them for it.
And all this slut shaming- whether it be blaming a rape victim, or a Facebook modesty post- really only exacerbate the problem. Girls do not need to "teach men to love them for who they are" and men do not need to "protect a woman's dignity". Such bullshit. Society, especially the Church, needs to advocate for the value of women other than their physical appearance. Society, especially the Church, needs to realize that young girls have dignity regardless of their sexual status. Finally, society- especially The Church- needs to advocate for socially acceptable ways for girls to gain power outside of using sex appeal.

Friday, April 15, 2016

I started reading The Catholic Home some time back, and I've been trying to integrate some of the ideas into our house. The author suggested trying to wean our house off of the more secular symbols and introduce a few more faith-related. With regards to Easter, she suggested that we try to downplay the Easter bunny and eggs, and decorate more with lambs and crosses. I don't know how much we are downplaying the Easter bunny and egg thing; we definitely aren't giving up our neighbor's annual Easter egg hunt, and she can pry Cadbury Cream Eggs from my cold dead hands- but the lamb symbol actually fits very nicely into one of my favorite Easter traditions.

Every Easter when I was little, my mom made a carrot cake in a lamb mold, and frosted it with coconut frosting. She left a the nose and ears unfrosted, placed raisins for the eyes, then sat him on a silver platter in Easter grass, sprinkled with jelly beans.

Then, usually, his head would fall off.

One year, the frosting just refused to hold the back and the front of the lamb together and the little guy just split right down the middle.

The cakes I've made for my own family have fared just about as well.

I don't know why it is so hard to make this lamb cake, but it really is very difficult, and I have to say, I find it hilarious. There are all kinds of cute little lamb molds you can buy that are much cuter and probably easier to complete, but I like to go old school. I use the old-fashioned, Nordic Ware mold and really get a kick out of seeing how it turns out. We do a spice cake, because though carrot cake might be more seasonally appropriate, spice cake is way better. Also, coconut is a no-go at my house, so we just do standard vanilla frosting. Unfortunately, this year- I don't know why- the frosting just kept rolling off the stupid cake. Not only would the back not stick to the front, but the poor little lamb's face just kept melting off like he had looked into the Ark of The Covenant. Poor little guy. I lay him down on his back, frosted him really fast and the stuck him in the fridge.

It worked, but when I took it out it felt like it weighed 15 pounds, and sort of looked like it had been made out of Elmers glue. Amani, who had been very excited to help me decorate the little lamb, jammed several banners made out of drinking straws and hand-drawn pictures of the Easter bunny.

Frankly, I think it makes a very interesting commentary on the way secular society is overwhelming the original message of Jesus' sacrifice. I'm sure that's what she was going for.